Father Zuko
by gitadine
Summary: Zuko is Fire Lord, married to a waterbender-turned-Lady-of-the-Fire-Nation, and a father to a very amazingly infuriating active little prince. Need to say more?


**Greetings, everyone! I'm Gita, and I'm new around here. Not, actually, as I've been reading good stories around for years. But I finally have the courage to write and to actually post a story here, so yeah. Hi. This is my first uploaded story, so please read and review. I'd like to see how you like it—or dislike it. Either way, please let me know! **** Oh, and please pardon my English, or better, point out my mistakes? Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: Why of course Avatar: The Last Airbender or anything related doesn't belong to me, else I wouldn't be here posting a **_**fan**_**-fiction. And I definitely have nothing to do with the movie!**

**Summary: Zuko is Fire Lord, married to a waterbender-turned-Lady-of-the-Fire-Nation, and a father to a very amazingly infuriating active little prince. Need to say more? **

I didn't know why Katara had wanted this, and why I had agreed. I had absolutely no idea. If only we had just waited for a few more years... If only the council hadn't been so sickeningly demanding for an heir. Katara and I didn't buy their reasons, though. Because really, did they expect me to die that soon? And I was bloody eighteen when we got married! Eighteen! How was an eighteen year old teenage boy to know anything about being a father? Not to mention I hadn't exactly had a very good father to make an example. He was pretty mental. Just imagine if I turned out to be like him—I'd get nowhere near sanity. Just take a look at my sister, for instance, who had once been his prodigy and all. She was now nothing but a psychologically sick princess.

Not very cool.

She'd probably still be smart enough not to have children—not this young. Or maybe she'd really not have any children at all—she'd find some wicked potion that would make her an immortal and she'd need absolutely no heir at all.

Still, I needed one and apparently Katara wanted one after Suki gave birth to a Sokka Junior.

"Hikaru!" I screamed that little lion-cheetah's name while running after him. "Stop right there and give me my crown right this second!"

He didn't. Of course he didn't. He just loved not doing whatever I told him to. No, he'd just do the opposite of what I wanted. And that was exactly what he did: he threw my crown into the duck pond.

I stopped. I flaming stopped. I stood there frozen and I glared at him with all my anger and frustration. He stopped, too, but he didn't turn around to look at me. He knew too well then to look at his angry father, oh he did know it well. He just stood there, not moving an inch, suddenly interested in the new floorings I installed around the pond three months ago. And it wasn't just for any decoration purpose: Hikaru wrote a really big "I'm angry because Father won't buy me fire crackers" all over the previous floor with a completely irremovable ink Agni knows what.

"What do you think you just did?" I asked the culprit, in a low, angry, scary voice that would make my servants regret ever dreaming working on the palace. He didn't answer. I saw he was already taking into accounts what he did and how mad I was at him and he started to sob. "Answer me!"

He began to actually cry. "You do realize you make a mistake?" He nodded. "A big one?" He nodded. "And that I am very disappointed at you?"

"I'm sorry!" He turned around but didn't look up to me, his sobs got louder and he was so very busy wiping his eyes. Which was a complete waste of time, because tears wouldn't stop escaping his eyes invading his cheeks like a very stubborn flood. "Father, I'm sorry…"

Oh, I wasn't giving up just yet. He had to stop with all his naughtiness. I knew he was still a very little boy and he was an active one and a normal portion of it was to be understood. But his case was way beyond the normal portion. Katara always said I over exaggerated (while rolling her eyes, with hands on each hips, and pouting, as well). Well, Hikaru was a little boy, and a prince! He was expected to be better-mannered than the rest of the boys his age in the Fire Nation. No other boy in Fire Nation would throw my crown into a pond! Well, maybe that was because 1) they wouldn't have any access to even holding it, or 2) the guards would immediately stop someone who were intending to hurt me—or my accessories. But still.

So I let him have a good few more minutes to cry, regretting what he'd done, drying his tears out. It was a lesson he had to learn. I'd like to give him more chance to realize that he was a Fire Prince and he had to better his behaviors or I, his father, the Fire Lord, would have something to do with his vanishing allowance or snack time, or even prolonged sessions of manner lessons, but I had no time to waste. I was supposed to be already starting a very important meeting with the council members to discuss something about the Fire Nation's future.

Because of that very reason, I knelt down to be on his level, looked into his eyes, and said, "Are you sorry, now?"

"I am!" He sobbed hard. "I am sorry, Father…"

"Good. Because you can never, ever, do that again. You understand that?"

He nodded. And still didn't stop crying.

And his mother came.

"What is this?" She asked. Oh, nothing, your son has just thrown your husband's crown into the duck's pond and he's crying because his father's mad at him for some reason, the usual… No big deal. "Why is he crying, Zuko?"

"I did something bad…" He replied for me. How nice.

Katara gave me a very questioning look I didn't really like. "And where is your crown, Fire Lord? And why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be in the meeting hall and having a meeting with the council members?"

Why do you have to ask so many questions at once, my dear, lovely, waterbending wife? "It's in the pond."

"What is?"

See? What's the point in asking me so many questions when you don't actually recall them yourselves, Honey? "My crown."

"What?"

"My crown, Katara, is inside the pond. Because this little prince had to steal it from our chamber and throw it into the pond. Yes, I should be meeting with the council members at the meeting hall right now, but I am here because Prince Hikaru has to learn some manners."

"Hikaru." She just said his name, and he froze. Oooh, the power of name-calling. Even if it was your real name, it had a wholly different level of threatening and horrifying when it was you mother who did that. And she did it a lot. My poor son.

She didn't continue, though. She went to the side of the pond and waterbended my crown out of it. She dried it with her waterbending, and gave it to me.

I thanked her with a smile. It really was handy to have a Master Waterbender as a wife, especially at times like this.

Mostly at times like this.

Usually at times like this.

I still remembered how it felt like to be water whipped…

I put my crown on nicely, and continued to look at my son in the eye. "Hikaru. Why did you do that?"

Katara crossed her arms in front of her chest, clearly wanting to know the answer as well. Oh boy, aren't you in a big problem now. And she said I was the one over exaggerating things.

"Because Father… wouldn't play with me…"

I froze.

"He promised to play with me last weekend… But he put on his crown… And went to work… I waited for him to come home but he hadn't come home until Mother told me to sleep… And I didn't sleep and waited for him… But he never came… And when I woke up the next morning… He wasn't in his chamber… He went to work with his crown…"

I didn't know how to react. Agni, I remembered promising this to him. I was really going to play with him since we hadn't done it for a while, you know, having a quality time between a father and a son. But then there was a political emergency going with some of the Earth Kingdom rebellions against the Fire Nation migrants, and Aang—The Avatar—was there so I had to go, and I didn't have time to say sorry and promise him I'd play with him the next weekend. When I got home, I went to his room and found him heavily asleep, he looked really tired. I dared not to wake him up. The next morning was Monday, and you know what Mondays bring. Boring days, Mondays are.

"When I went to his chamber just now to ask him to play with me… I saw Father's crown… And I hated it… Because it took Father away from me…"

Oh, guilt. Oh, huge, heavy guilt.

"So I…"

Stop it, would you? I pulled him into a hug before he could continue any longer. That was enough. That was very, very enough. "Hikaru," I whispered, "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry, Boy. I had a very important meeting, but it was wrong for me to break my promise to you. I'm sorry…"

He shook his head. "I'm sor—"

"I'm sorry, Boy." I repeated myself. I was completely taken over by guilt. I knew how it felt to not be cared and to be abandoned by my father, and why was I doing exactly that to my own son? I was, I guess, the worst father of all. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."

He broke free of my hug and looked into my eyes looking so expectant and pleased. "Really? You'll really, Father?"

I smiled. "Of course."

"Thank you!" He hugged me back. "I love you, Father!"

Ah. There it was. I figured out why Katara had wanted to have an offspring. I had, of course, many times before this, but it was quite easy to forget when my son was being too overly active almost all of the time. I really was the worst father of all.

Katara then joined in our little hug, and this was it. These two were my everything, and I would do anything to protect them. Agni, please, let us live a long, happy life. I wouldn't be able to breathe without one of them.

They were my family.

**A/N: Weird. ****And full of OOC-ness. And lack of details. I know. Anyway, thanks so much for reading and please let me know what you think of it! **


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